NatWest Group has appointed Isabelle Girolami, currently Head of Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB), as Chief Executive Officer of Commercial & Institutional (C&I). She will also join the Group Executive Committee from 1 January 2027, subject to regulatory approval. She takes over from Robert Begbie, the current CEO of C&I, who will become Executive Chair, Scotland and Senior Advisor, C&I.
ASSAF ARRIVES FROM CRÉDIT AGRICOLE CIB
Walid Assaf will succeed Peberdy as the new CEO of Markets, subject to regulatory approval. He joins NatWest from Crédit Agricole CIB, where he led Global Markets Trading. He has 30 years of experience leading trading, franchise development and risk management across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
GIROLAMI'S CAREER BEFORE NATWEST
Girolami joined NatWest Group in 2025 as Head of Corporate & Institutional Banking, arriving in June from LCH Ltd (The London Clearing House), where she was Chief Executive Officer. Before LCH, she was deputy CEO and head of global markets at Crédit Agricole CIB.
She also spent seven years at Standard Chartered Bank in senior banking and financial markets roles in London and Asia, and has held senior international leadership positions at BNP Paribas. Girolami is a graduate in international law and finance from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciale in Paris.
THE BUSINESS GIROLAMI WILL INHERIT
NatWest describes itself as the UK's biggest bank for business, supporting 1.5 million companies from sole-traders to multinational corporates. It banks one in five start-ups in the UK, or 20%.
The bank is the number one lender to infrastructure and project finance and the number one lender for social housing in the UK. Earlier this year it launched a dedicated venture banking business to support high-growth companies and the investors backing them.
Lending across Commercial & Institutional rose around 10% in 2025, compared with 2024.
Related: UK's NatWest Group posts H1 2026 attributable profit of £3.0 billion; RoTE of 19.7%